March 21, 2006 — University of Virginia School of Architecture visiting faculty Craig Verzone and Cristina Woods of Verzone Woods Architectes, with offices in Rougemont, Switzerland and Barcelona, Spain, will give the Myles H. Thaler Lecture at the University of Virginia School of Architecture on March 31.

Verzone and Woods are principles in Verzone Woods Architectes, a collaborative multidisciplinary studio working within the overlapping realms of landscape, urban design, architecture and temporary installation.

They are visiting faculty in the School of Architecture during the spring semester.

The firm’s current land-related work includes the landscape planning and design of a few new villages in the Pyrenees, public parks and gardens in the expanding cities of Huesca and Zaragoza in Spain, public spaces for Swiss alpine villages and private gardens. Additionally, VWA has recently completed a four-volume landscape masterplan for Switzerland’s canton of Vaud, which includes an analysis of the rural territory, a palette of landscape typologies and a series of pilot projects aimed at framing the major challenges confronting the contemporary landscape.

Verzone and Woods also have designed a prefabricated modular concrete bench, entitled “Cité”, currently commercialized by the Spanish company Escofet. In collaboration with the local foresters, they are now developing a series of wooden urban and rural public space elements.

Verizone earned a bachelor’s in landscape architecture at Cornell University and a master’s in landscape architecture in urban design at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. As a 1998 Rome Prize fellow in landscape architecture he spent a year at the American Academy studying the landscape of post-war collective housing on the periphery of the city. Verzone has made temporary installations in the United States, Switzerland and Italy and with VWA continues to do so.

Woods graduated from Harvard University in visual and environmental studies with a focus on painting and photography followed by a master’s degree in architecture from Harvard’s Graduate School of Design. She participates in the landscape and urban design projects in the studio and is responsible for the current architectural work which includes the interior transformation of an early 19th century church, the conversion of a World War II military subterranean fort into a center for alternative medicine, the oversight of a dozen state-owned buildings listed as historic monuments and the expansion of a daycare center. In addition, she has designed a number of rural and urban residential renovations in both Switzerland and Barcelona.

For more information contact Derry Wade at (434) 982-2921.